White Rose
by MadBangel
Summary: Damon's not one for goodbye speeches.
1. Chapter 1

White Rose

Disclaimer: I do not own the Vampire Diaries. Obviously.

Author's Note: I'm a big Delena fan. But this story features some strong Stelena, and an oblivious Elena and Stefan. The reason for that is that it is following canon. I don't think Elena is fully aware of the fact that Damon loves her. She and Stefan still don't quite believe Damon is capable of love. So, this one is gonna be angsty.

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Elena woke up to the sunlight streaming through the curtains of her room. It felt unreal, waking up safe and sound in her own bed, warm and strangely cheerful, as if nothing could possibly be wrong in the world.

Last night, they had defeated Klaus.

Everyone she loved was safe, and Elena allowed herself to revel in that feeling. In the last two years there had been very few moments when someone she loved was not under threat of death.

Just then, she registered the presence of something foreign on her pillow, and discovered a single white rose, just barely opened, lying perfect and unadorned beside her. She frowned, a moment of terror passing through her at the idea that someone had been in her room while she slept. The danger was gone, wasn't it?

She chastised herself for the moment of panic – Stefan must have left her the rose. She smiled and picked it up, putting it to her nose and delighting in the fact that it had a scent. Sweet, just like Stefan. She remembered their happy celebrations last night and bounced out of bed, deciding to go and visit the boys that morning.

She put her beautiful rose in water before heading off to the boarding house.

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Elena practically floated into Stefan's arms as he answered the door. He embraced her warmly and they stood for several moments wrapped in each other's arms.

She pulled back and looked at him, all healed up and good as new after last night.

"I'm so glad it's over, Stefan," she confessed. "I just want things to be normal again."

He smiled, but there was an edge of sadness in it somewhere.

"What's wrong?" she asked, that panic from this morning flaring again.

He didn't answer fast enough for her.

"Stefan-" she pleaded, begging for an answer.

Something was wrong, she knew it in her bones.

"Stefan, tell me, please!"

He sighed, and met her eyes with his own.

"It's Damon," he told her.

"He's gone."

Elena reeled.

"What do you mean gone?" she demanded.

"He's left town. Permanently," the younger Salvatore told her, running a hand through his spiky brown hair in frustration.

"But… we just defeated Klaus last night. How could he leave?" she asked him, forlorn. She had been looking forward to seeing him this morning. It was one of those things she felt slightly guilty about, after all, he had killed her brother, and countless other people, and she knew how insecure Stefan got about them, but she couldn't deny that she had gotten used to having Damon in her life. She cared about him, whether she liked it or not. She didn't want to examine that feeling any more closely than she had to, given that she was dating his brother.

"He took off shortly after the battle was over," Stefan told her, sounding depressed. "This is what Damon does – shows up, wreaks havoc and then leaves."

"I really thought this time was different - that he might stay," he confided to her. "I feel like I just got my brother back and now he's gone again."

"Did he say why?" she asked, trying to make sense of this sudden jolt that had her world spinning off its axis yet again.

Stefan pressed his lips together and nodded.

"The whole Katherine thing. He wanted to get away from the bad memories."

Elena hated that bitch with everything in her. She could cheerfully drive a stake through her heart right now for what she'd done to Damon. She wanted to inflict severe pain on Damon too, for leaving her, especially without saying goodbye…

"The rose," she whispered to herself.

"Rose?" Stefan questioned, not understanding.

"There was a white rose on my pillow this morning. I thought it was from you," she told him.

He shook his head. "Damon's way of saying goodbye."

"As opposed to actually _saying_ goodbye," she snarled, pacing. "I thought for a moment it might be some sort of threat or message from Klaus – are you sure it was from Damon?"

Stefan smiled sadly.

"Damon has a thing about roses," he told her. "They were our mother's favourite flower."

"You've never talked about her before," Elena noted curiously.

"I was very young when she died – too young to really remember her. But she and Damon were extremely close. He loved her very much," Stefan told her.

"The fact that he gave you a rose, that's a very high compliment coming from him."

Elena thought back to the first rose Damon had given her, back at the Founder's Party the previous year. She hadn't understood then what the gesture had meant.

"Damon doesn't always communicate in a way other people can actually understand," Stefan told her ruefully.

Elena nodded, biting her lip. She pulled Stefan into an embrace, trying to control the tears that threatened to spill down her cheeks.

Damon was gone. The morning that had started so promisingly now seemed grey and colourless.


	2. Chapter 2

White Rose – Damon's POV

Damon stood over Elena, gently stroking her cheek as she slept. He recalled the first time he had done this, back when she had first stirred something in him, some feeling that he had thought he was incapable of having for anyone but Katherine.

He'd long since learned the error of his foolish love for the selfish, manipulative vampire. But she made a useful excuse to give to Stefan as to why he just had to leave town right now, just after they had won the day against Klaus.

He laid his parting gift to the sleeping girl gently down on her pillow. The single white rose was beautiful, perfect. Just like her, he thought.

Roses always made him think of his mother, and he smiled at the thought that she would have liked Elena. Perhaps that was why he'd never given Katherine a rose – even when he'd been head over heels for her, he'd always known that his love for her was a thing of the dark – a reckless, selfish passion with a wild, inappropriate woman.

Elena was a creature of the light. Her very name meant it.

He reflected on the meaning of the white rose. It was a symbol of purity and innocence. Of true love. Of a farewell, or a new beginning. Of youth, and young love. To give one was a sign of love, friendship, respect and hope.

He felt every one of those as he took one last look at the love of his life before he turned and blurred out her window, closing it securely behind himself.

He wanted more than anything on this earth to stay with her, but he didn't think he was strong enough to keep the promise he had made to her the night he compelled her to forget his confession of love. He was trying to be the better man, for her. To give her up to Stefan because she deserved someone good like his little brother, rather than a broken and twisted mess such as himself.

If he stayed, it would be too hard not to try to take something for himself, to press her to give more than she was capable of giving him. He was at heart a selfish creature, he knew. He'd given in to temptation before, and it had damned him.

He had no idea where he would go, or what he would do. His life without her was empty. But her life without him would be happy, at least.

He held onto that thought as he headed onto the main road out of Mystic Falls, leaving his hometown for the last time.

The white rose was also his own personal white flag of surrender.

The End.

Author's Note: The meaning of a white rose is at wiki answers dot com Q/What_is_the_meaning_of_a_white_rose

In this story, Elena will miss Damon, but she will go on happily with Stefan. I believe if Damon stays, he will win her over eventually (my other story Worth Waiting For is on that very topic). This story is about what would happen if he left now, before she has really fallen for him.


End file.
